The present invention relates to improvements in or relating to a silo, particularly for passing or feeding powders into something else.
A conventional funnel-type silo is provided with a small exhaust port for passing or feeding loose materials or liquids or powders into something else which pour from a wide, cone-shaped mouth, wherein a center point of the exhaust port is equal to a center point of the wide, cone-shaped mouth. For this kind of silo for storing various kinds of powders, it is very important to prevent a bridging phenomenon of powders within a hopper. To cope with such disadvantage, the following countermeasures have been so far carried out:
(1) to smooth an overall internal face of the silo including the hopper.
(2) to steepen a tapered slope of the hopper.
(3) to provide a particular hole for destructing briding, which penetrates into the storage portion inside. (In operation, the hole is sealed.)
(4) to install an agitating vane or an arch breaker within the storage portion.
(5) to enlarge the diameter of an exhaust port.
When adopting the foregoing countermeasures, installation of such a silo may be burdensome and the installation cost thereof may be expensive. In addition, none of those countermeasures is effective for solving the briding phenomenon of powders. Particularly, for a silo for storing powders, it is extremely difficult to prevent the bridging phenomenon in the hopper which hinders smooth feeding of powders from the hopper exhaust port into another device.
In order to overcome the aforementioned disadvantages of the conventional silo, the present invention has been achieved.